Second Round of TV Cooking Competition Set for This Weekend

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JAMESTOWN, NY (WNY News Now) — Though the first round of the televised cooking competition, “So, You Think You Can Cook?” is in the books, there’s still time to get a front row seat to the action.

Audience spots are still available for Saturday, March 4 and March 11 at 6 p.m. at the St. Susan Center in Jamestown. For a $15 donation at the door, you can support the Center, get a behind the scenes look at production, as well as be served soup, dessert and a beverage.

“So, You Think You Can Cook?” host, and Channel 716 founder, Lee Cain says the chefs at last week’s competition-fundraising brought their “A game.”

“These people are coming out and it is, firstly, the meals are delicious, they’re fantastic. So there’s no ifs, there’s no ands, there’s no buts. And each one of the individuals represented their businesses. Absolutely positively in such a manner that I don’t think you can actually see the meals that they produced and say, ‘no, I don’t wanna try that.’ I think it is an excellent representation of the talent, especially the culinary talent that we have in this area,” boasts Cain.

All chefs competing are local, including Margo Stuart owner of Ariels Bed and Breakfast, Nathan Hallberg with Steeners Pub and Camille Hodnet, who owns CK Kitchen and a chef at the St. Susan Center.

“‘So, You Think You Can Cook?’ we’re bringing in these three, each week is three area cooks, chefs and they’re using these random ingredients plus what we have in our pantry to come up with this culinary delight,” explains Cain.

Chefs have forty minutes to prepare an appetizer with the mystery ingredients for the judges to try. While the judges are tasting, the audience participates by voting for their favorite soup.

“And they each bring in a soup and that soup is judged by the audience and it competes with the St. Susan’s Center soup so there’s actually four soups. While they’re tasting the soups, they bring them out one by one,” says Cain.

With demand at St. Susan’s Center increasing, the organization hopes the community will come down and support their cause, all while having a fun evening.

“It’s so much fun. I mean if not just to support the community, if you wanna come down and have a good time, because we do put on a show. So there’s gonna be some joke telling, there’s gonna be interaction. But here’s the other thing, if you wanna see the people who are behind signs of these local businesses,” it is just another great reason to attend the event, continued Cain.

The three nights will ultimately be produced into three hour-long streaming shows on Roku TV’s Channel 716, with all advertising proceeds benefiting the St. Susan Center.